Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was handed some receipts on social media after he made a bold claim about President Donald Trump at the Republican midterm convention on Wednesday.
“We’ve gone from autopen to overdrive,” he said. “From a president who couldn’t stay awake to a president who refuses to sleep.”
Trump frequently attacks former President Joe Biden for his use of autopen and calls him “Sleepy Joe,” claiming he fell asleep often during his presidency.
But Trump himself has used the autopen.
And, as Bessent’s critics were quick to point out, Trump has frequently struggled to stay alert in public, especially when he’s seated and other people are speaking.
In moments that often turn into social media memes, Trump’s eyes will close and his head will tilt, sometimes forward and other times leaning back into his chair.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) earlier this year called the president’s inability to stay awake “a grave national security threat,” but Trump has insisted he’s wide awake in those moments and is just resting his eyes.
“I’ll just close. It’s very relaxing to me,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “Sometimes they’ll take a picture of me blinking, blinking, and they’ll catch me with the blink.”
Some of those blinks, however, have been lengthy ― and it’s not just online trolls who’ve noticed.
“Repeatedly falling asleep with a dozen people surrounding your desk is not normal,” CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner wrote on X earlier this year. “It needs to be evaluated.”
He suggested that Trump be tested for sleep apnea.
Critics on X hit Bessent with some reminders of how the president doesn’t exactly “refuse to sleep”: